


"It Wasn't My Fault"

by ErebosBlue



Series: Critical Hits [3]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: (And spoilers for one of my fics if you look hard enough), ANYWAYS-, Akira is sad, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Character Study, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Dialogue Light, F/F, I couldn't help myself, I guess this could be a character study, It's the same timeline as pretty much all my other Persona fics, Just because the title doesn't make that clear, LOOK I COULDN'T STOP IT, M/M, POV Third Person, Persona 3 Spoilers, Persona 5 Spoilers, Soulmates, This has a whole bunch of headcanons about the Protagonists' childhoods, This is getting sadder than I intended it to be, This one is either gonna be really good or really fucking bad, Underage Prostitution, Which makes no sense until you read it, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, hoo boy, just a bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23222599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErebosBlue/pseuds/ErebosBlue
Summary: Soulmates.They're supposed to love you through it all and you the same with them.The perfect person for you.A constant in a constantly changing world.But even soulmates can die.
Relationships: Arisato Minato/Kurusu Akira, I write nothing else at this point and it's kinda sad, It doesn't last long-, Kurosu Jun/Suou Tatsuya, Niijima Makoto/Takamaki Ann
Series: Critical Hits [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1525577
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40





	"It Wasn't My Fault"

Soulmates. The person you’re destined for and the person destined for you. The person you’re supposed to love as long as you live and the person who’s supposed to love you. The only person you’re meant for. You were supposed to be the perfect match. But what if you fell in love with someone else? What if they… died? Would you be forced to live without love? Akira Kurusu, who had never bought into the idea of soulmates, was about to find out.

10 was the magic age. The age in which you and your soulmate would start sharing pain, anything you wrote on your body, the works. In addition, when your soulmate died a black band formed around the other’s wrist. It practically _begged_ sympathy from anyone who saw it. The band meant that you would never have true love again. It meant that the one person who was supposed to love you, was gone.

Akira thought the idea was more terrifying than anything else. Some unknown… _whatever_ decided that this person, who you’ve likely never met, was the best person for you. What gave it any right to make that choice for you. Though, even with that, Akira couldn’t help the twinge of jealousy when people found them. A soulmate was a constant. There weren’t many things that were constant, but they were supposed to be. A love that never changed, never left. Even if it wasn’t true, like Akira expected it to be, it was a reassuring thought.

When Akira’s 10th birthday rolled around, he didn’t know what to expect. Whatever he expected, finding out his best friend was his soulmate was definitely not that. Minato Arisato. He was a year older than him and Akira would be lying if he said the two of them didn’t already have an unbreakable bond. The biggest relief with it was that Minato had a soulmate. Because Akira was a year younger, Minato didn’t get the signs until Akira turned 10. Maybe they should’ve figured it out from that. Akira was still suspicious of the whole soulmate deal, but it being Minato made Akira a whole lot less scared about the whole idea.

However, the feeling of relaxation was quickly broken. 2 days later Akira’s parents were murdered. Well, they were Akira’s parents, but it was confusing. Tatsuya and Jun had adopted Akira when he was 5 and thus, he was moved to the town he lived in now. That’s when he met Minato and Souji, another friend of his that was 2 years older than him. His birth parents had given him up for adoption when he was born. He wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t bother him. His parents were great, and it wasn’t like he was alone with it. Minato had it worse than him. His parents had died when he was 5. Just a year before Akira arrived.

Minato actually spent a lot of time at Akira’s house. He never did like the orphanage. He complained about it whenever it was brought up and stayed away from it when he could. Akira couldn’t blame him for it either. It didn’t seem like a great place to be. It didn’t help that it probably brought up memories of the accident. Both of them were very close to Akira’s parents. Well, until they were murdered.

The murder was in front of him. He couldn’t do anything about it. He cried, sobbed, as they were ripped to shreds in front of him. The figure in front of him wasn’t human. It couldn’t have been. It was a large black shadowy figure with long tendril-like fingers. No, they were like claws than fingers. They tore through skin and pulled out organs. Akira could do nothing but freeze and stare. The screams had died out by the time Akira finally realized what was happening. It didn’t matter though as the figure was gone soon. The white snow stained a distinct shade of red.

The police arrived eventually, Minato and Souji in tow. Minato offered comfort to Akira, holding him. Akira could tell Minato was also deeply affected by the scene in front of them. The look in his eyes said it all. They were glazed, unmoving. The police around them talked and talked, but Akira couldn’t hear them. He couldn’t hear anything. They eventually asked for his account of what happened. Akira spilled out everything he saw. Minato held his hand through it all. The police didn’t listen. They thought Akira was crazy. Minato had yelled, defended him, but Souji ended up pulling them away.

Souji’s parents were never home. Souji was left with food and a babysitter that would come over every other day. It wasn’t right, but there was nothing Akira could do about it. Souji pulled them to his house to rest for the night. Akira and Minato didn’t let go of each other the entire rest of the night. They were too scared to.

Akira had ended up being practically given to one of the police officers. Akira could smell the stench of alcohol as soon as he was even remotely close to the man. Akira tried to hold hope, but the house was no better. Empty beer bottles and syringes lined everything. It was filthy and the entire thing smelled of rotting food. Turned out the man was an alcoholic and his wife was a meth addict. How they even kept their jobs was beyond Akira.

Minato wasn’t much better off. He had been adopted into a home. That was the good part, the bad part was anyone could see how they emotionally abused him. Anyone could see the way they manipulated him. Anyone could see just how unhappy Minato was there. Akira wanted to help, but he couldn’t offer shelter. His new adoptive… parents, they didn’t deserve that title, often hit Akira when anything went remotely wrong. He wouldn’t have minded it nearly as much if he didn’t know Minato was going through the same pain he was.

Souji wasn’t in a great spot either. Apparently, his parents decided 13 was old enough to handle himself and they stopped supporting him in any way. The babysitter stopped and food would only last so long. Plus, Souji’s house had become the place where Akira and Minato would hide. Being home was worse than the shortage of food in their minds. Souji was determined though. Akira didn’t know how, but Souji got money from any job he could get. Sometimes it was washing a car, sometimes it was working with a store until they let him off because he was too young. Akira wanted to help, but he could barely talk to anyone that wasn’t Minato and Souji, and he wasn’t that old. No one would offer any money to an 11-year-old.

Most days were Akira and Minato trying to move on. Talking to each other, boding, the works. That was, when they weren’t at school. School was a hellscape. Akira, Minato, and Souji were all different ages, so none of them had even the _chance_ to be in a class together. Not only that, but Akira was hated by his teachers now because he could hardly speak to them. He wanted to, he did, but something in his mind wouldn’t let him. Regardless, they made things work.

2 years passed and nothing changed. Souji was 15 and still trying to earn enough money to support the 3 of them. Minato and Akira, 14 and 13, were also trying their hardest to support them. What Akira learned fairly quickly into it was that trying to earn enough money for 3 teenagers when no one was offering nearly enough was that drastic measures had to be taken. Prostitution. The one thing Akira promised himself he’d never sink to. How naïve he once was. It made the money situation manageable though. No matter how much Akira despised every touch, every inch of his body screaming at him, he did it. He knew the others did too, but no one talked about it. It was an unspoken agreement that no one wanted to talk about it.

One night, because nothing in their lives went right, Akira and Minato were cornered by some bastard who had gotten his hands on a gun. Akira acted before his thoughts could tell him the risks. Seeing the gun pointed towards Minato’s head caused such a great panic in him. He needed to do something. So, he pissed off the guy. He hoped that he had read the guy right and that he would get emotional and shoot the gun without aiming properly. He was sorta right as he fired the gun not as wildly as he hoped, but it only hit Akira in the collarbone. The guy ran, knowing the noise would alert someone.

The next thing Akira knew, he was in a hospital bed with a sobbing Minato next to him. When Minato noticed he was awake he slapped him. Akira deserved it, but the nurse looked heavily concerned. The nurse left, leaving Minato and Akira alone. Minato called him an idiot, which Akira agreed with, but also confessed. It was the worst place to confess, a hospital room as Akira was bleeding, but it was real. It wasn’t because they were soulmates, Minato told him because that’s how he felt. Akira couldn’t stop the tears as the two kissed. Maybe this was why people believed soulmates were supposed to be perfect for you.

Time went on as usual. Until Souji left. Souji’s parents, for whatever reason, decided that this time they left they would send Souji off to his uncle’s house. Without Souji’s house for protection, Akira and Minato had to tough it out with their sets of adoptive parents. They would still meet up as much as they could, but it wasn’t the same. Being at their houses constantly put strain on both of them. Akira could see the light slowly drain from Minato’s eyes. Akira knew he wasn’t much better. He was covered in bruises and practically lost all his motivation for everything.

Another year passed; this time Minato left. The adoptive parents threw him out a couple months before he left and then he was transferred. Why wasn’t exactly clear to Akira, but that didn’t compete with the emptiness he felt without Minato. He could live without him, theoretically, but not seeing his face wore down on Akira faster than he would like to admit.

Throughout the year Akira was constantly pinged with Minato’s pain. What was he doing to get hurt this badly? What was he doing to get burned, electrified and all the rest of what Akira was feeling? Akira couldn’t contact him, for whatever reason, which caused Akira to worry more. He wasn’t dead, Akira could feel his pain and the band hadn’t appeared, but Akira wouldn’t have been surprised if he woke up one morning to see the black band around his wrist. He prayed that he wouldn’t have to see it for a long time, but he was never that lucky, was he?

March 5th was the day everything crashed around him. After school, graduation day at that, a black band formed around his wrist. Akira couldn’t drag his eyes away from it. He had felt an excruciating amount of pain about a month earlier, but the band hadn’t appeared then. Why now? What happened? Why… Just why? Akira grew numb with the amount of time he took staring at the band.

Not that much later Akira was arrested for “assault.” He refused to believe he did anything wrong, but everyone around him was saying that he should’ve just stayed out of it. Akira barely listened to them. If he had done nothing that women would’ve suffered. It wasn’t right to just let that happen. Akira’s parents, being the bastards they were, shipped him off to someone they didn’t even know.

Akira arrived at LeBlanc with low expectations, but somehow it was even worse. Sojiro, his caretaker, shoved him into an attic of a coffee shop. Wonderful. Akira didn’t miss the way he looked at the band either. A gaze of fear. A gaze Akira would get very used to over the year.

The first day of school went just as bad as could. He and someone else, Ryuji, got transported to some weird place where a schoolteacher ruled as the “king of the castle” and Akira awakened to some weird power. Actually, Arsène was pretty sweet. Regardless, Akira was hours late to class and his file was fucking leaked. As _soon_ as the black band was noticed by the other people in the class, he heard the whispers.

“Is that a black band?”

“It totally is!”

“You’ve heard the rumors about him, right? He _totally_ killed his soulmate.”

“I’m not surprised. Just _look_ at him.”

“His poor soulmate. They shouldn’t have had to die to him.”

Akira quickly tried to shut out all noise around him and just head to his seat. Everyone thought he killed his soulmate. Fucking superb. Minato was dead for reasons he didn’t even _fucking know_ and now he was being blamed for it. He could feel pure rage rise in him. He could deal with rumors about him, he really could, but Minato deserved to rest in peace. Akira resisted the urge to clock anyone who mentioned the black band in a rumor after that.

Akira eventually learned all about the castle they were at before. He learned all about palaces and everything else that had to do with Personas. Akira was glad to finally understand what had happened with Minato. Well, not his death, but the constant pain. He and Souji had obviously been on their own journeys. Though, that didn’t explain how Minato had died. Akira was told he was fated to die, an ironic fate if you asked him, but the world was fated to go down with him. Why had Minato died and the world remained?

Morgana, the person that explained everything to him, was confused by the notion of soulmates. It wasn’t his fault, per se, but Akira dreaded the moment when Morgana finally asked about the black band that was constantly on Akira’s wrist. Akira tried to explain calmly that it meant his soulmate was dead, but he was sure Mona could see the pain that coursed through him as he explained. Morgana made sure to never bring it up again.

As the team grew, so did the amount of times the obligatory stares and whispered apologies. Akira wanted to get mad. He wanted to yell, scream, but they meant no harm. They were trying to be supportive of their leader. Akira couldn’t get mad at that. Though, he couldn’t help the heap of jealousy when two of his team members, Ann and Makoto, found out they were soulmates. At least they were happy.

Akira, instead of getting mad at his team, filtered his anger through the Metaverse. Was it unhealthy? Probably. It didn’t matter though because it was therapeutic to him. It didn’t help that their main goal was to take down the scum of society. Akira was more than happy to beat the asses of people than genuinely deserved it. No wonder Minato got hurt a lot, the feeling of knocking down enemies was intoxicating. 

When Akechi had first appeared, Akira knew he was suspicious. Hell, suspicious didn’t even cover it. He heard Mona and Akira knew that he was behind something. He wasn’t sure what yet, simply because the whole “black mask” deal hadn’t been brought up back then, but it was there. Whatever it was, Akira didn’t trust it. It didn’t help that he knew Akechi already figured out that he was the leader of the Phantom Thieves. Akechi made no attempt to hide it. Akechi, being the bastard he was, brought up the band in one of their meetings. Akira made it very obvious that he was glaring at him as he answered Akechi’s question.

“A black band, huh? Did you meet them before they passed?”

“I knew them, yes.”

Akira cut the encounter off at that. It was a jab at him. Akechi was trying to prove a point. It was a dumb point as Akira had noticed Akechi’s own black band earlier. Akechi tried to hide it, but Akira was perceptive. Akira couldn’t help the slight pang of sympathy as he saw it, losing a soulmate was brutal, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still Akechi.

Even with that, Akira and Akechi got along better than either of them would ever admit to. They, though they denied it, had a very similar life. It didn’t make Akira agree with any of Akechi’s viewpoints, _especially_ when he figured out he was the black mask, but it did make Akechi seem more… human to Akira.

That really shined when Akechi sacrificed himself. Akira didn’t know what to feel when the gunshots rang. Akechi had tried to _kill_ him. Akechi had killed Haru’s father, and yet, he felt a strong sense of sympathy. Akechi’s life story didn’t justify any of his actions, but he deserved a _chance_ at redemption. Akira felt similar to how he did when the black band showed up. Powerless. Utterly powerless. The others must’ve noticed how lost Akira was as they were out of Shido’s palace as soon as they secured the treasure route.

As if that wasn’t fucking enough, then came the whole thing with “Igor.” Akira had been led by the god they were going up against the entire time, unbeknownst to them, and he was _now_ learning it? He had to watch his entire team disappear in front of him just to find out that pretty much everything he knew about his journey was a lie or had more to it. Fan-fucking-tastic. Eventually, after some bullshit deal offer, the real Igor returned, and he _finally_ got told where his teammates were. Before he could go to them though, Lavenza said something to him.

“He’s proud of you, you know.”

Akira’s pace stuttered as she spoke to him. He had obviously known who the “he” she was referring to was. Could Minato see what Akira had done? It was a preposterous idea, but God did it give Akira just a little bit of hope.

The battle went about as well as it could of. They beat the shit out of Yaldabaoth, the prick, and released the world from his chains. What didn’t go well was that Morgana disappeared with the Metaverse. Akira roamed the streets after the battle. Mainly just thinking. Morgana had been with him the whole year. The world really did like to rip people away from him, didn’t it?

The next thing he knew he was in prison, keeping his teammates safe. There wasn’t really anything to do, so Akira spent most days just sitting and reflecting. It was dumb, but he checked his wrist every night. He held hope that maybe, just maybe, his journey would mean that Minato would come back. It wouldn’t happen, he knew that, but he held onto every scrap of hope he could.

He just wanted to see him again.

His teammates somehow managed to overturn his sentence at some point. Akira was a free man. It didn’t feel as good as it should have. It was nice to finally be free of the last chains weighing him down, sure, but it wasn’t the same. He knew he would just home and nothing would be different. It wasn’t like he could stay in Tokyo. Sojiro had warmed up to him over the year, but that didn’t mean Akira felt comfortable practically begging to stay in the attic.

Akira sat with his friends at LeBlanc after he got back from prison. It was peaceful being surrounded with his friends once more. They talked like nothing had happened, which Akira appreciated. It also turned out that the dumb cat wasn’t actually dead. Akira resisted the urge to punch him. Akira relaxed into the booth, noting that his sleeve had rolled up slightly on the table. Akira couldn’t help looking at the black band for a second. It really commanded it. However, the black band began disappearing. It became clearer and clearer until it fully disappeared. Akira couldn’t take his eyes off it until the bell on the door rang. Standing in the entryway, illuminated by the light that almost made him seem angelic, was Minato.

“Hey.”


End file.
